Google Goggles turns cameraphone into translation tool

Picture perfect app update

Google has announced an update to its Google Goggles phone app which translates foreign words found in the pictures you take.

The service, which is available for Android devices running Android 1.6 and above, allows for automatic text translation, whether it be words on a street sign, menu or poster.

Once a user takes a picture of the word or phrase, Goggles will ask the user whether they want the information translated.

Currently the languages the app supports are: English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.

Google is hoping to add more languages to its recognition capabilities in time.

This isn't the only updated feature on the new Goggles app. Google has informed us that the app now has a bigger database – so it will recognise more objects – and the UI of the program has been improved.

Google Goggle's launched back in December 2009, heralding a new area for the company – visual search.

Although it is still very much in its infancy, Google has been ramping up its efforts to improve the software

In April of this year, Google bought up visual search app Plink and swiftly moved the creators of the app on to its Goggles project.